McLaren junior de Vries takes second Aragon pole
Nyck de Vries will start the second Formula Renault 3.5 race at Aragon from pole after topping an ultra-close qualifying session, in which the first four cars were split by less than a tenth of a second.
Nyck de Vries, DAMS
DAMS driver de Vries went to the top of the timesheets in the final minutes of the session after becoming the first man to break the 1m42s barrier, only to be quickly deposed by Saturday's race winner Oliver Rowland, who held provisional pole when the chequered flag was shown.
But, on his final attempt, de Vries was able to string together a time of 1m41.609 to beat Rowland to the second pole position of the weekend by just eight hundredths.
Race one polesitter Matthieu Vaxiviere threatened to depose the McLaren protégé when he set the fastest first sector time of the session on his final attempt, but the Lotus driver fell short by just 0.024s and will therefore start from the outside of the front row.
Rowland hung on to third place, a mere thousandth quicker then Fortec teammate Jazeman Jaafar, with Pietro Fantin (Draco) and Tom Dillmann (Carlin), who enjoyed a spell at the head of the times late on, completing the top six.
De Vries' teammate Dean Stoneman will start seventh, ahead of Nicholas Latifi (Arden), Tio Ellinas (Strakka) and Alfonso Celis Jr (AVF), who was quickest at the mid-point of a session that had started off in damp conditions.
Meanwhile, Roberto Merhi's difficult weekend continued as the Manor Formula 1 driver could do no better than a lowly 18th position for Pons Racing.
Qualifying results:
Pos | Driver | Team | Time/Gap |
1 | Nyck de Vries | DAMS | 1m41.609 |
2 | Matthieu Vaxiviere | Lotus | 0.024 |
3 | Oliver Rowland | Fortec Motorsports | 0.080 |
4 | Jazeman Jaafar | Fortec Motorsports | 0.081 |
5 | Pietro Fantin | Draco | 0.238 |
6 | Tom Dillmann | Carlin | 0.259 |
7 | Dean Stoneman | DAMS | 0.273 |
8 | Nicholas Latifi | Arden Motorsport | 0.289 |
9 | Tio Ellinas | Strakka Racing | 0.328 |
10 | Alfonso Celis | AVF | 0.354 |
11 | Beitske Visser | AVF | 0.476 |
12 | Gustav Malja | Strakka Racing | 0.704 |
13 | Meindert van Buuren | Lotus | 0.728 |
14 | Sean Gelael | Carlin | 0.751 |
15 | Bruno Bonifacio | Draco | 0.805 |
16 | Egor Orudzhev | Arden Motorsport | 0.906 |
17 | Roy Nissany | Tech 1 Racing | 1.066 |
18 | Roberto Merhi | Pons Racing | 1.248 |
19 | Aurelien Panis | Tech 1 Racing | 1.418 |
20 | Philo Paz Armand | Pons Racing | 1.516 |
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